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A12 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 27 december 2016

Colombia probe finds human error, lack of fuel in air crash

ALBA TOBELLA
CESAR Garcia
Associated Press
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP)
— A series of human errors
caused an airliner to run
out of fuel and crash in Co-
lombia last month, killing 71
people including most of a
Brazilian soccer team, avia-
tion authorities said Mon-
day.
Colombia’s Civil Aeronau-
tics agency concluded in
its investigation that the
plan for the flight operated
by Bolivia-based company
LaMia did not meet inter-
national standards. Among
the errors it cited were the
decisions to let the plane
take off without enough
fuel to make the flight safe-
ly and then to not stop mid-
way to refuel. It ruled out
sabotage or mechanical
problems. In this Nov. 29, 2016 file photo, rescue workers recover a body from the wreckage site of the LaMia chartered airplane crash, in La
Neither the charter com- Union, a mountainous area near Medellin, Colombia.
pany nor Bolivian authori- Associated Press
ties should have allowed The BAE 146 Avro RJ85 has when it was too late. fore the crash all the motors serves required by interna-
the plane to take off with a maximum range was Bonilla said that during the had shut down, the investi- tional standards for such a
the flight plan submitted, 2,965 kilometers (1,600 nau- flight the pilot and co-pilot gation concluded. flight and that authorities
said Freddy Bonilla, safety tical miles) — just under the are heard on “various oc- In a recording of a radio also detected an excess
secretary for Colombia’s distance between Medel- casions” talking about message from the pilot, of baggage, but did not
aviation authority. He said lin and Santa Cruz, Bolivia, stopping in Leticia — a city he can be heard repeat- relate it to the accident.
the agency’s conclusions where the plane had taken near the borders separat- edly requesting permission Also, according to its plan,
were based on the plane’s off at almost full capacity. ing Brazil, Peru and Colom- to land due to a lack of the flight was expected to
black boxes and other evi- The plane was in the air for bia — to refuel but decid- fuel and a “total electric reach 30,000 feet, an al-
dence. about 4 hours and 20 min- ed not to do so. When the failure.” A surviving flight titude the plane was not
Experts had earlier suggest- utes when air traffic con- plane entered Colombian attendant and a pilot fly- certified for.
ed that fuel exhaustion was trollers in Medellin put it into airspace it was flying into a ing nearby also overheard Details of the complete
a likely cause of the Nov. a holding pattern because wind, which caused more the frantic pleas from the report by Colombia’s avi-
28 crash that wiped out another flight had reported fuel to be consumed. doomed airliner. ation agency will be re-
all but a few members of a suspected fuel leak and And when the pilot asked In addition, there was no leased in April 2017. Bolivia,
the Chapocoense soccer was given priority. for priority to land in Medel- explosion upon impact, Brazil and the United King-
team, as well as team offi- Investigators found that lin, six minutes before crash- pointing to a scarcity of dom contributed to it.
cials and journalists accom- crew members of the La- ing, the plane had already fuel. Bolivia’s government has
panying them to a cham- Mia flight were aware of spent two minutes with a Investigators in Colombia already blamed the air-
pionship playoff match in the lack of fuel but only motor shut off. Three min- concluded that the plane line and its pilot for the
Medellin, Colombia. reported an emergency utes and 45 seconds be- did not have the fuel re- accident.q